As Kenyans try to come to terms with the recent murders and brutal attacks linked to love gone sour, some have come out to relate the connection between men’s deadly reactions to what their women subject them through.
To be clear, murder or even physical abuse to any one can never be justified, unless it’s a case of self defense.
Uxoricide, which is murder of one’s wife or romantic partner, is evidently on an alarming increase in the country.
Globally, about 40 percent of all female murder victims (and just six percent of male murder victims) die at the hands of a former or present spouse or lover. The home becomes a dangerous place for women (as well as for children).
Nearly all male murderers claim that (a) they committed the murder out of love, and (b) it was a result of loving too much.
But why should men really go to these extremes to just hurt their spouses?
Is it a case of depression? Infidelity? Finances?
“Because of love I killed her… If I didn’t love her, if I didn’t love her, I don’t think I would feel so much pain… It’s like she took an arrow and stabbed me in the heart,” a man who killed his wife was quoted.
Nicholas Koech, who allegedly stabbed his baby-mother Ms Naomi Chepkemoi, a third-year student at Pwani University, in her house at Mkwajuni village on the outskirts of Kilifi town told the court that he did it out of love.
Earlier, Mr Koech had blamed Ms Chepkemoi’s father for denying him his right to take care of his one-and-a-half year old baby, whom he sired with the victim.
Mr Koech, who seemed remorseful, told journalists that he acted out of love for his ‘wife’ and daughter.
“Naomi is my wife and I love her very much. We started dating back in 2016 while she was a first year,” he said.
Kenyans have expressed their arguments under trending hashtag #StopKillingforLove: